THREE GUYS SPIRITS PRIVATE LIMITED

About

In 2015, the world was going through a “Gin-aissance” and yet, two bar owners in Delhi who waited expectantly for the tsunami of Gin brands were left high and dry. The country where Gin & Tonic was invented and where exotic gin botanicals are found in most home kitchens was still in the dark ages of Gin. If they wanted Gin, they were going to have to make it themselves. They stepped out from behind the bar, got themselves a copper pot still and experimented with every spice, herb and fruit they could find. They found a lot, they distilled a lot, they tasted a lot and they fell down a lot. With a little bit of luck and a lot of help, they found two recipes they loved enough to not just want to serve at their own bar but to take to the rest of the country and the world. The duo becomes a trio with Aparajita Ninan stepping in to start visualizing the brands. The dream starts taking shape as we start experimenting with a lab still at home to distill whatever spices we can get our hands on. We attend the Craft Distilling Conference in the UK and learn how terribly unprepared we are for life as distillers and make the very smart choice of convincing a distiller (Dr. Anne Brock, well before she rises to fame as the Bombay Sapphire master distiller and the head / queen of the Gin Guild) in London to travel to sunny Goa and teach us how to make Gin properly. Oh yes, we also find some people in Goa who we like, and who happen to have the facility and the right licenses for us to setup a small distillery. We order a pot still, give their address for delivery, and then sit back with our fingers crossed. It somehow comes together. We hire our first employees in early 2017 and we receive our Copper Pot Still in Goa. We name her Agotha, which means “Good Hearted” in Hungarian. We finalise the recipes and finish building the distillery and then sit around for a couple of months waiting for permissions to be granted. On the 30th of September, those permissions finally arrive and we officially launch Greater Than out into the universe to become the first Indian Craft Gin. Greater Than becomes available in Goa and Bangalore, beating all expectations in our mind and those of our distributors as well – people are drinking Gin all of a sudden. One brings two, and Hapusa quickly becomes the second Gin out of our stables and the only Gin in the world made with Himalayan Juniper! No time for baby steps – we launch simultaneously in Goa and in the UK with a surprise appearance at Junipalooza. This year is such a blur! We have so much fun with our Gins which are now available in 5 states as well as 10 countries outside of our own, with the UK, Italy and Singapore leading the way. This is going to be the year where we pull out all the stops! And then…the stops get pulled out right from under us and humanity at large. Covid hits and the world grinds to a halt. We sit around and dream up big plans. We focus. We learn. And then, when the opportunity arrives, we go all out and launch our first Limited Edition – the Juniper Bomb! Is this the break-out year? We win our first Gold medal at the IWSC with Hapusa! That’s massive! And then, somehow, our tiny distillery gets put on the world map when the people of the IWSC place us in the International top 5 Gin producers of the year. Somebody pinch me…no, don’t! Can’t go to sleep anyway. Greater Than’s second limited edition is out, and it’s infused with Cold Brew Coffee. Aptly, it is named No Sleep. The story of 2022 is still being written. We’re still growing – almost 900 bottles of Greater Than are consumed everyday on average. That’s a lot of Gin! We also win our first Gold medal at the IWSC with Hapusa! We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got longer ways to go. Leaving some space down below for us to keep filling in as we go along. Stay tuned.